


Aphasia's curse

by sixiemelune



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Aphasia, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), Established Relationship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, POV Krolia (Voltron), Protective Krolia (Voltron), but the ending is good dw, dont read!!, it is heavily described so if thats triggering to you, its a bit sad I'm not gonna lie, klance but its neuroscience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28161597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixiemelune/pseuds/sixiemelune
Summary: “Lance don’t you dare.”Krolia turns around, barely avoiding the Galra and twists his arms, her eyes fly to her son who’s holding a child with one hand and fighting with the other. When she looks behind him, the Blue Paladin has his eyes settled on the Galra ship next to them. She immediately knows what he’s going to do.Blow up the ship. Probably die in the process.
Relationships: Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 166





	Aphasia's curse

**Author's Note:**

> had to study for linguistics, so here I come again! Already said it in the tags but I describe aphasia and all the effects it has on someone so if that's not your thing, don't feel forced reading it!! I'll be happy finding you in the next one :)

“Lance don’t you dare.”

Krolia turns around, barely avoiding the Galra and twists his arms, her eyes fly to her son who’s holding a child with one hand and fighting with the other. When she looks behind him, the Blue Paladin has his eyes settled on the Galra ship next to them. She immediately knows what he’s going to do.

Blow up the ship. Probably die in the process.

“Lance, don’t you dare.” Keith yells this time. “Don’t even _think_ about it.”

But she sees the way Lance watches Keith, watches the child Keith’s holding and she knows there’s no way the Blue Paladin is coming back on his decision. He takes his blue bayard, looks at her son as if he’s the last thing he’s going to see and start running for the ship.

“ _Lance!_ ” Keith screams. “Lance, come _back!_ ”

His voice breaks at the end and she sees Lance mouthes an _I love you,_ and suddenly Krolia’s back on Earth, eyes on Keith’s father as she’s about to depart for the Blades. And she remembers his skin, and his lips and the way he felt pressed against her and she remembers painfully that she’ll never get to live it again.

And Keith — there’s no way she’s letting Keith live with this absence. And so maybe it shouldn’t be all that surprising how she maneuvers herself through the Galra sentries. They do say that the automatic nervous system sends a rush to the hypothalamus when it is scared, so maybe her muscles _are_ working for themselves, eyes set on the Blue Paladin as if he’s the last thing she’ll see.

“Krolia!” Keith yells. She closes her eyes, apologizes silently for not being here longer, for not being able to stay. “ _Krolia!_ ” Louder this time, the Blue Paladin is within her reach, she grabs him, pushes him back behind as he falls to the floor, frowning when he sees Krolia.

She jumps on the ship, it’s easy, really. She hears Keith scream her name again. _I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry._

“Krolia stop — _Mom,_ ” his voice cracks. She can’t look at him, _I love you. I love you, so much._ “Mom you promised you wouldn’t — You promised you wouldn’t leave me again! _Mom!_ ”

She hits the base of the ship, it explodes. She doesn’t hear anything, the world goes pitch black.

_I love you._

* * *

Krolia needs to blink a couple of times before adjusting to the lighting in the room. There’s people wearing white around her. Gesturing quickly while talking with —

 _Keith._ She feels her mouth open, her mind starting to form something, a train of…of _emotion,_ of pictures _._ When she tries to catch his attention, she finally realizes that he’s talking with the women in the room.

“What kind of lesion are we talking about?”

“The frontal cortex has been damaged.” A pause, “It’s the brain area dedicated to the production of language. I believe humans call it Broca’s area? We have suspicions her temporal lobe could be affected too, which could lead to some damage in her..” She looks down to her notes. “Wernick area.”

“Work with me here, what is that supposed to mean?” Keith says through his teeth. Krolia has an urge to reach for him, hold him in her arms but Keith is still getting used to her, going stiff whenever she holds him too tight.

_“Give him time,” Shiro had said. “It’s nothing against you, Krolia. He still hates it when I give him hugs.”_

_“I know,” she had sighed, running her fingers nervously through her hair. “It’s just….I want him to know I’m here for him.”_

_“I think he knows,” the black paladin had smiled. “He’s just used to being alone. He’ll come around.”_

_She had nodded, and had started walking away but Shiro had reached for her. “You should tell him you love him more often.”_

A flood of emotion and regret passes through her and she needs to voice something — something strong. There’s something that sits in her belly, a feeling that desperately want to get out but she doesn’t know how to-

“It means your mother might have aphasia.”

“Aphasia?”

“It’s a degenerative disease, it takes a major toll on language. She might, uh, lose her ability to speak. Or understand words.”

“No.” Keith answers. “ _No._ ” He says louder.

He looks toward her, finally. Krolia still can’t voice her feelings.

* * *

She still hasn’t said anything to Keith when they come in the room to get her. When she looks over to her son, mildly panicked, he reaches for her hand, squeezing it gently. “They’re just going to make a couple of tests, Mom. Nothing to be worried about.”

Krolia’s not a fool, she recognizes the fear behind Keith’s eyes. He’s scared. She’s hurting him, she doesn’t want him to hurt.

“Hey,” he says again. “There’s no need to cry, you’re okay.”

He reaches for her cheeks, wiping her tears. She hadn’t realized she was crying. When she looks toward her son, he gives her a reassuring smile. “C’mon let’s go. I’ll be waiting for you in the other room when you get out.” 

“Krolia is it?” The neuropsychologist asks when she finally gets to the room.

She nods. The neuropsychologist looks uncomfortable and Krolia can’t blame her, nobody really wants to have a Galra as a patient. They’ve destroyed everyone.

She almost wants to get up and leave, apologize for the inconvenience of being there, of existing. But she remembers Keith. And so she takes a deep breath and meet the neuropsychologist’s eyes. She recognizes hatred.

It’s nothing she’s never seen.

“Tell me what happened before you got to the hospital, Krolia.” The neuropsychologist says, voice monotonous. Krolia nods anyway, smiling at the woman so she’ll maybe, somehow, get in her good favours.

“We— I. Blue.” The wave of panic hits her when she realizes she can’t form sentences and she starts using her hands. “Ship. Keith.” Her eyes widen, and she starts to make bigger movements, trying to convey the words with her hands. “Keith. Keith. Blue.”

The neuropsychologist hums, and looks down to her notepad. “Krolia can you repeat something for me?”

“Yes,” She smiles. That she can do. The words are given, the sentence is here. There’s no way she won’t be able to say it. “Yes, yes.”

“The planet is blue.”

Easy.

Until it’s not.

“The— the. The pla. Pla, pla.”She stops talking and there’s a heavy silence. Krolia prays Keith isn’t watching. “Blue,” she finally says. Her voice is shaking toward the end and it’s only when the tears fall on her hands that she realizes she started crying again.

“Blue,” she repeats, as if she’s trying to prove a point. “Blue. _Blue._ ”

The neuropsychologist doesn’t say anything. She raises an eyebrow and writes on her notepad. When she’s finally done, she looks up to Krolia. “Good. You can go now, thank you.”

* * *

Krolia is sitting with Keith and Lance when they tell them the news. She doesn’t look at them, too ashamed of herself. They tell them that only the Broca’s Area of Krolia has been affected, which is great. That means she understands them — she just doesn’t have speech. If it would’ve been her Wenicke area, she’d be constantly talking nonsense, never understanding the meaning of words.

“So what, she can’t talk? Can’t form sentences?” Keith asks.

“Exactly.” The neuropsychologist says. Lance frowns his eyebrow, and takes the pencil on the table to write something on his hand, muttering incomprehensible words.

“You know, we would be lucky if all the Galras could have aphasia,” the neuropsychologist giggles. “Would save us a lot of fighting, eh?”

Lance doesn’t have the time to react before the punch lands straight on the women’s face.

Security comes down, grabbing Keith like he’s an animal and start taking him out of the room but before Krolia can (try to) protest, Lance is raising his voice, anger flashing behind his eyes.

“He’s a paladin of Voltron, he’s been saving the ass of the whole damn universe for months, quit it.” He glares. “He won’t do anything, and you need to fucking watch your words.”

Security let go of him immediately, mumbling apologies as Keith finds his way back to Krolia. She ends up falling asleep after thirty minutes.

Krolia wakes up in the middle of the night to the sight of Keith sleeping in Lance’s arms. Lance is still awake, singing a lullaby in what Krolia guesses is Spanish. When he notices Krolia, he gives her a smile.

_He’s home._

She goes back to sleep then, knowing her son is safe.

* * *

“Keith,” she tries the next day, after her training session with the speech therapist.

Lance is gone, and her son has been sitting next to her reading a book, waiting for her. He looks up when he hears his name.

“Hey Krolia.” He says. “Feeling good?”

She nods, taking a deep breath. She can say it, she knows she can.

“Love,” she says.

The emotion is stuck between her chest, begging to be heard but the words still won’t _come._ “Love,” she repeats this time, more desperate.

Keith walks to her, taking her in his arms. “It’s okay, Mom.” He closes his eyes. “It’s okay.”

No. _No_ , no, Keith doesn’t get it. “Love,” she tries again. Her eyes are burning, and there’s no other words that want to come to her. “Keith, Keith, _love._ ”

“I love you too, Mom.” He says quietly. She notices the way his voice breaks, feels the wet tears against her shirt and she rubs his back, trying to hold back her own.

She wants Keith to be safe. She wants to give him everything she couldn’t when she left Earth. She wants him to know she’s never loved anything more than him. She wants him to understand that she’ll always protect him. “Love.” She says again.

The words still won’t come.

* * *

Krolia stops talking after a while, and Keith gets worried. When he asks the neuropsychologist about it, she barely gives him a glance.

“Totally normal,” she shrugs. “Nobody understands her so she doesn’t see the point in talking.”

“Normal?” Keith says between his teeth.

“What?” She says flatly. “Going to punch me again ‘cause what I say doesn’t please you, Mister Kogane?”

He does punch her again. And Lance isn’t here to stop the security this time.

* * *

When Krolia sees Lance again, it’s two weeks after the incident. He walks in her hospital room and there’s a huge smile on his face and she knows he comes bearing good news. Keith isn’t here yet, still talking to the neuropsychologist (with two women from security making sure he doesn’t punch anyone again).

“Hey there Krolia.” She gives him a sheepish smile as he sits down on her bed. “I have good news for you.”

Keith and the neuropsychologist walks in the room before Lance has a chance of telling her. Keith’s frowning but the minute he sees Lance, his face breaks into a smile. Lance gets up from Krolia’s bed, walking to him and removing the hair falling on his face.

“What are you doing here?” Keith asks. “I thought Allura had sent you on that mission with Hunk.”

“Finished early,” he grins, kissing Keith’s forehead. “And I’ve done some research. Might have something that could help your mother.”

Keith raises an eyebrow as Lance turns to the neuropsychologist, “I was wondering if it was possible that Krolia had multilingual aphasia.”

The neuropsychologist frowns, “As in, she could still speak fluent Galran, but not English?”

“Exactly,” he nods. “Ribot’s law, I believe? The mother tongue remains intact or is only slightly affected.”

She shakes her head, clear disgust showing in her face. “It’s useless. Galras have long forgotten about their mother tongue, since it is so tied to Altean and they find it a weakness. They only use English to communicate.”

Keith’s head shoots up, “I can’t believe it,” he says. “You _knew_ that? You knew it and you didn’t even think about trying it?”

The tension raises in the room and Lance reaches for Keith’s hand. “Keith’s right,” he says calmly. “Multilingual aphasia is far more complicated than basic theory. It would be worth it to try.”

“And what?” The woman asks sarcastically. “Are you going to ask Zarkon to give her a lesson?”

“Nothing like that,” Lance smiles politely. “But we have a couple of friends from the Blade of Marmora. Great people, if you ask me. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind them swinging by?”

“Do as you wish, Paladin.”

* * *

Krolia does remember her mother tongue.

The words flow easily and come to her as if she’s never lost them. She still struggles, sometimes. But it’s better. So much better.

Keith learns it too, so does Lance. The rest of the paladins even end up catching a few words.

And Krolia tells Keith she loves him. Tells him in a thousand different way, and keeps reminding him, keeps using her words, keeps voicing her love.

 _Tebak,_ I love you.

_Tebak, Tebak, Tebak._

“Kmen, Mam.” Keith answers every time, without missing a beat. A broken accent but a warmth in his voice. “Tebak.”

_Me too, Mom._

_I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> So here it is!
> 
> First, two things.
> 
> 1\. How I created Galran
> 
> I actually had a bit of fun with that one, and mixed two languages and removed some letters.  
> "Tebak" = "te amo" (from spanish) + "bhebak" (from arabic)  
> Both means "I love you", just merge the "te" (spanish) & "bak" (from arabic)  
> "Kmen" = "ana kamen" (from arabic, which means "me too")  
> Used the kmen from kamen (just remove the a)  
> "Mam" is just how I call my mother, I have no idea where it comes from, tho. 
> 
> 2\. Aphasia
> 
> Everything stated here is true but I described it really loosely. Multilingual aphasia is far more complicated than that and usually the person may have a hard time speaking even in their mother tongue. We didn't learn that much about it in class so I wouldn't be able to tell you the length of it but if you do have questions, feel free to ask me I can definitely look it up.  
> If you have questions about Wernick's area aphasia (not being able to understand language)/Broca's area aphasia (not being able to express language), also feel free to ask me (it's good for practise lmao, my final is on Monday). 
> 
> That's it! I hope you enjoyed it & feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudo :) always a pleasure to hear about your thoughts on the fic
> 
> Moon x
> 
> come talk to me on:  
> [Twitter! ](https://twitter.com/sixiemelune)  
> [Tumblr! ](https://sixiemelune.tumblr.com)  
> 


End file.
